Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, I truly mean it—Happy New Year. On September 1st, the Church gives us the gift of a new beginning—the Ecclesiastical New Year. Unlike the turning of the calendar in January, this New Year is not about resolutions that fade after a few weeks.
It's not about good intentions we rarely keep, diet plans, exercise goals, or career ambitions. This New Year is about reorienting our whole life toward Christ and His Kingdom. It is about resetting our steps so that each step leads us closer to Jesus, closer to our hearts, and closer to one another.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and He will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." The Church invites us to that same examination, not with shame or fear, but with hope. St. Paul tells us, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17). And he gives us the central aim of the Christian life: "Make love your aim" (1 Corinthians 14:1).
Let's do everything in our power to become vessels of love. Let every thought, every decision, every action be guided by the power of God. St. Isaac the Syrian urges us: "Let your heart burn with love for all creation: for human beings, for the birds, for the beasts, for every creature of God."
Love is not abstract—it takes shape in compassion, forgiveness, patience, and mercy.
From Aim to Action: Becoming Vessels of Love
The poet Maya Angelou reminds us: "Love liberates. It doesn't just hold, it sets us free." This is the truth of the Gospel. Christ's love frees us from sin, from fear, from selfishness. And when we love others, we also set them free from loneliness, despair, and rejection. To love is to participate in God's work of healing and transformation in the world. Be a loving liberator! JUST DO IT!
As we begin this New Year, let's reset our "spiritual pedometer." Every step matters. Every prayer whispered, every act of kindness, every word of gratitude—these are steps toward the Kingdom of God. St. Basil the Great reminds us: "This is the true beginning of life: to desire to know God." And we come to know Him most fully when we love, because "God is love" (1 John 4:8).
At Holy Apostles, our hope is to walk this sacred path together. We long to be more than a church that simply gathers; we are called to be a community that transforms, a community that radiates hope, kindness, peace, and above all, love. A place where love is not only spoken as a word, but lived as a verb, embodied in every action. As Martin Luther King Jr. wisely said, love is not the answer, it is the assignment. A place where every soul can encounter the Real God, the Risen Christ, who alone fills our hearts with joy and true freedom.
Chris Whitmer, a former parishioner, once shared words found underlined in a worn copy of Shattered Dreams by Larry Crabb, a book her beloved son Keith treasured before his life was cut short at the age of 30. Though Keith battled the darkness of addiction, he carried within him a passion to help others find freedom and health. This passage captured his heart:
I envision a revolution that creates a community of broken people united not by their problems or diagnoses but by their hunger for God. I envision a revolution that frees people to fully participate in that community because they feel the safety of the gospel that embraces rather than judges, that joins hurting souls more than advising them on how to feel better, that supernaturally equips people to pour life into one another. I envision a revolution that creates true community and transforms lives, a revolution that centers on an encounter with God that fills the soul with sheer delight. That's my vision, an encounter with God that creates community and transforms lives.
Keith dreamed of a revolution that creates true community and transforms lives, a revolution centered on an encounter with God that fills the soul with sheer delight. What he underlined in his hope, we are invited to live in reality. We, too, envision a holy revolution, a community not built by force or fear, but by love, where brokenness is met with mercy, and every heart finds belonging.
So let us recommit ourselves to Christ this year. Let us trade complaints for gratitude, judgment for mercy, indifference for love. Let us make love our aim, not a fleeting resolution, but the very heartbeat of our life in Christ. For when we walk in love, we walk in freedom. When we walk in love, we walk in Christ. And when we walk in Christ, we walk together into the Kingdom that is already breaking into our world today.
"Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)
May this New Year be a year of renewal, a year of liberation, and above all, a year of love that liberates and sets us free!
Happy New Year!!
+Fr. Tom
Originally published in the Holy Apostles E-bulletin. Subscribe here.
